by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XLVII
THE TEMPTER
One stormy winter's day, on which not even his neighbors dared ventureout of their houses to make their customary visit to Pushkin, a sledge,amid the tinkling of many bells, drove into the courtyard, and from outthe midst of his fur wrappings and high felt boots emerged ChevalierGalban.
A host stifles all inimical feeling towards his guest, the more so whenhe comes in such vile weather. The road was invisible from snow-drifts;it was impossible to see where one was driving.
Pushkin welcomed Galban cordially. The pipe of peace was lighted in thewarm, cosey room. Bethsaba prepared the tea.
"But, in the name of all that's wonderful, what brought you out of St.Petersburg in such weather?"
"H'm! My dear fellow, that your own experience can give you a goodinkling of! Your windows do not look on to Nevski Prospect either! You,too, have your reasons for being here."
"Right you are," said Pushkin, blowing the smoke in blue rings into theair, which rings gathered together over Bethsaba's head, as an aureoleover the head of a saint; and, ostentatiously drawing his wife towardshim, he put his arm round her waist as he said, "This is my reason!"
Galban laughed. "Well, I certainly cannot lay claim to such a reason! Asfar as I am concerned, it is _Veteres migrate coloni_" (Old cottagerstake to wandering). "The world is topsy-turvy. The old set have to flyfor their lives. Even Araktseieff is smoking his pipe at Grusino."
"That surprises me. Czar Constantine was his ideal. And I know thatthere is no one Araktseieff loves better than Czar Constantine."
"Yes; if Constantine were the Czar, I, too, should have known what I wasabout; but he is not."
"Not Czar?" said Pushkin, amazed. "But the papers give his name in allproclamations."
"But, my dear Alexander Sergievitch! You a writer yourself, and yet arenaive enough to believe what is in the papers?"
"The devil! But one must believe them when they announce that the Senatehas proclaimed Constantine to be Czar, and that the household troopshave sworn the oath of allegiance to him."
"All the same, Constantine is not Czar. We live, my friend, in an age ofmiracles and absurdities. Official papers do not publish everything;still, in St. Petersburg people pretty well know what is happening. WhenConstantine was proclaimed Czar, and from Grand Dukes to guards all hadduly sworn the oath of allegiance to him, the President of the Senate,Lapukhin, produces a sealed packet, upon which was inscribed, in thelate Czar's handwriting--'To be opened in cabinet council after mydeath.' The seals were broken, and within was found a document in whichGrand Duke Constantine, the Czarevitch, renounced his succession to thethrone in favor of his younger brother, Grand Duke Nicholas. A seconddocument contained in the packet was Alexander's will, wherein hestates that he had accepted Constantine's renunciation of the throne,and naming Grand Duke Nicholas as his heir."
"So, then, Constantine is not Czar, but Nicholas. That is plain."Pushkin said this in a tone from which it was easy to infer that it wasa matter of indifference to him.
"Not quite so plain as you think. Grand Duke Nicholas refuses to acceptthe succession. He is a follower of the old regime, which suffers nochanges, and now the war of high-mindedness runs high between St.Petersburg and Warsaw. Grand Duke Michael, the third brother, acting asintermediary, goes from one brother to the other with the request thathe should accept the crown."
"Anyway, a display of great brotherly love, unexampled in the world'shistory. Up to now princes have been more apt to dispute a crown!"
"And what makes the farce complete is that two accomplished facts,contradictory to each other, have to be surmounted. It is anaccomplished fact that Constantine has been proclaimed Czar and cannotrelinquish the throne; and, equally so, that he has taken to wifeJohanna Grudzinska, a Pole, a Catholic, and only of aristocratic birth,three circumstances which render it impossible for her husband to wearthe crown. And so, on the one hand, Constantine _cannot_ relinquish thethrone; on the other, he _cannot_ ascend it."
"For all I care, let him stay where he is."
"You, in your Tusculum, can afford to make cheap jokes; but what are allthe poor devils about the court to do in such an imbroglio?"
"Especially as his wife is more to the Czarevitch than his crown!"
"No more of that! With that overdrawn conjugal love we do not throw sandinto other people's eyes. I had opportunity of putting that love to theproof. I assure you that it needed no magic to have led Frau Johanna toforget her Grand Ducal lover for a _knightly_ one. At that time she hadnot the right to call him husband. Ah! had not a more powerful feelingswayed my heart"--a suppressed sigh and secret side-glance at Bethsabahere explained his words--"truly in my hands would have lain the powerto present Grand Duke Constantine the nineteen crowns of Russia--even atwentieth. It only needed me to have stayed one day longer in thegardens of the lovely Lazienka."
Pushkin was disgusted at this bragging. He knocked the ashes out of hispipe. Galban's boasting he valued at the same rate as those ashes.
"I happen to know, however, that the Czarevitch and his wife are sodevotedly attached to each other that Constantine would not exchangeJohanna's head-dress for Rurik's crown."
"But what if that is not due to Johanna's head-dress, but is the faultof Rurik's crown? A sensible man does not shelter from the storm under afir-tree if he means to keep dry, and of all fir-trees the crown of aRussian fir is the most dangerous in a storm. Every one knows--even thesparrows twitter it--that the late Czar was only saved by the kindagency of Caucasian fever from the fatality which awaits every Russianczar. There are many rumors, even, about his end. People talk of poison.The _bon-mot_ of Talleyrand is going the round: 'It is really time thatRussian czars changed their manner of dying.' One shudders to say it,how assassination, treachery, conspiracy, await him who sits uponRurik's throne. The very kneeling-chair, the altar, the church whereinhe prays, are undermined. Is not this explanation enough why one brothervies with another in refusing the throne? The most open expression offeeling was that which caused the Czarevitch to explain the reason ofhis hesitation to the Queen Dowager of Saxony in these words: 'Russianczars need to have very strong necks, and I am not fond of having myneck tickled.'"
So outspoken! Only _agents provocateurs_ venture to say such audaciousthings.
Pushkin shoved the amber mouth-piece so far into his mouth that he couldnot bring out a word. Bethsaba saw that her husband was on thorns, andleft the room. She had divined his wish, and ordered three sledges to behorsed and despatched to fetch their neighbors, hindered from coming bythe snow-storm.
Galban, meanwhile, continued the conversation.
"You know very well who I was and what I am. My whole life long I havebeen a courtier. I loved to serve, to obey, to intrigue. Never did Ihave the least inclination to join a league of conspirators. I tell thetruth. But under the present circumstances a man's ordinary loyalty isof no account whatever. The whole country is at sixes and sevens. Evenpolitical leagues are disrupted. By the death of the Czar the ground hasbeen cut from under their feet. There is no Czar. Against whom shouldthey conspire? They have split up into two parties. If Constantine takethe crown, Nicholas will immediately be proclaimed Czar as well; ifNicholas, Constantine will be set up against him. The soldiers are readyto fire upon each other; each party will fight for their legitimatehead. Under the counter battle-cry, 'Long live the Czar!' we shall havea fine revolution breaking out. Nor can one tell who will come outconqueror. If Constantine's party win the day, Nicholas's followers willbe the rebels; if Nicholas's party gain the upperhand, it will beConstantine's followers who will suffer. The position of a man likemyself is simply terrible. Whichever side I take to-day, how am I totell if, with all my loyal devotion, I shall not to-morrow be proscribedas a rebel? Under such circumstances a wise man cannot do better than toleave the chaos to take care of itself and flee to the woods to huntwolves. And, I trust, Alexander Sergievitch, that we shall often join inthat healthful pursuit together."
&n
bsp; "I am not allowed to go a day's journey from Pleskow."
"Well, then, my estate lies within your boundary--just a short winterday's distance. Let us get all the enjoyment out of it we can as long asthis chaotic world endures."
Pushkin promised to return the visit shortly.
"Then, now we are friends and companions," continued Galban,garrulously. "You may imagine the lamentations under the tsinovniks inSt. Petersburg. Next March Czar Alexander was to have celebrated hisfive-and-twentieth year of accession. Every man about the court wascongratulating himself on the prospect of ascending a step on thisladder of rank; instead of being 'vase blagorodie' that he would become'vase vomszkoblagorodie.' Numbers of them had had their uniforms madebeforehand, and had prepared their answers for the forthcomingexaminations. You are aware that all of us, when we get preferment, haveto undergo an examination? Luckily for us the professors give out thepapers in good time; a golden key lets them out the sooner. And now allthis has come to naught. I myself stood on the list, in the third rankof nobility, as director of the St. Petersburg Theatre, and you figuredin it in the rank of major. Three thousand aspirants! most of whom hadpaid pretty heavily for their chances into Daimona's fair hands. Moneythrown away now."
This dangerous conversation was brought to an end by the noisy entranceof the three neighbors. Never had doors opened to more welcome guests.They had not, moreover, come to quarrel over involved questions ofsuccession, but to play tarok; and it is an acknowledged axiom--tarokbefore everything!
Chevalier Galban excused himself on the plea that he only played hazard,and that for high stakes.
"Well, then, sit down and have a game of chess with my wife. But look toyour laurels; Bethsaba plays a good game."
Thus Chevalier Galban settled to a game that is the greatest hazard inall the world, and is played for the highest stakes of all.